NOTES ON BIRDS FROM EASTER ISLAND 23 
Pterodroma (Aestrelata) heraldica paschae n. subsp. 
Native name: Taiho. 
Motu Nui: 1 6d, 2 2, 1 pull. 78/6 1917. 
Length -of wing of male 275, of females 264—265 mm. Culmen 27,7 mm. 
in male, 26—28 in females. 
With regard to the general appearance these specimens are most similar 
to heraldica from the southwestern Pacific. The male may be described in the 
following way: General colour above brownish black, more intensely, some- 
what slaty black on the lower back, the smaller wing-coverts and scapulars. 
The bases of the feathers are white, and if the plumage happens to be in 
disorder the white may shine: through on the upper neck and nape. The fore- 
head is mottled by means of white margins to the dark slate grey feathers. 
On the lores and cheeks the white is dominating, so that the grey centres only 
take the shape of small spots. The ear-coverts are dark slaty grey, but the 
white shines through more or less. The greatest wing-coverts and the secon- 
daries have a shade of slaty grey, partly with blackish vermiculations as in 
arminjoniana. The primary coverts are black like the small coverts and the 
primaries. The latter have on the inner web »white wedges», which, however, 
are not pure white except in their proximal parts and gradually become more 
and more shaded with ashy, so that they are not so sharply defined at the end, 
about one third of the length of the quill from the tip. In the females (which 
may be somewhat younger birds) these »wedges» are still less conspicuous and 
shorter. The secondaries are white on the inner web towards the base. The 
long tail-coverts are white for somewhat less than the basal half, then black 
with a shade of slaty which ceases some distance from the tip. The tail- 
feathers are black with some white basally, chiefly on the inner web. The 
throat is pure white like the lower surface of the body generally, but across 
the fore-neck and sides of neck is a broad band of grey. In front this is 
effected by the tips of the feathers being narrowly banded by grey, but the 
extreme fringes again whitish. The sides of the body are somewhat mottled 
with dusky which sometimes takes the shape of narrow bars. The under tail- 
coverts are dark slate grey, basally white (sometimes for about half their length) 
and narrowly fringed with white at the extreme tip. Under wing-coverts black 
with greyish edges. The greatest series is grey with the concealed parts white. 
Axillaries blackish. 
Tarsi and proximal joint of toes with the included web yellow (in skin) 
except the outer toe which appears to be black for its entire length as are the 
outer joints of the other toes with their web. Bill black. 
; As this description shows, this bird resembles the true /eva/dica very 
closely. The most apparent difference is that the latter has the under tail- 
coverts white, only »with black bars near the ends of the feathers», while the 
same coverts in the specimens from Easter Island are chiefly dark. The latter 
have perhaps also less white on the primaries and a different pattern of the 
black on the feet. These small differences together with the different habitat 
